Keravnos Strovolou - Krasnye Krylia 51-82The Russians of of Krasnye proved to be to strong for the Cypriots and beat them for a second time (actually thrashing them) locking once and for all their top seat in the Group B of the Eurochallenge and now the Cyprus site of Coach Yiannaras needs at least one victory in the remaining two road games so as to have some chances to qualify as the second team in the group as currently with the 2-2 record is at the second position of the group together with the Finnish Joensuun Kataja after their road win over the Romanians of Ploiesti with 80-67 to leave the Romanians winless in the group. So the most crucial game for the team of Keravnos Strovolou will take place in Finland.

So, about the game now, a catastrophic third period where the Russians of Samara with the quartet of Omar Thomas (196-F-82, college: UTEP), Nikita Balashov (207-F-91), Chester Simmons (196-G-82, college: Washington) and Aaron Miles (186-G-83, college: Kansas) in a great performance, Keravnos Strovolou was not able to defend its homw court and lost very easily since the Russians scored 24 points in the specific period while Keravnos was able to score only 11! Not only that, but the players of Keravnos got very nervous due to the very good defence by the Russians so the unsportsmanlike foul by the captain of Keravnos at the end of the 3rd period gave the chance to the Russians to end the quarter with +18 points (40-58) and actually give an early end to the game. It is worth mentioning that Keravnos scored only 8 points in the second period while another 11 were added in the third period, so in a total of 20 minutes Keravnos scored 18 points in compare to the 22 points scored in the first period where the home team outscored Russians with 22-17, after that first period the troups of Yiannaras collapsed in total.

Crocker's very low productivity game (he had 0/5 three pointers in the first three periods and 1/7 in total) together with the very bad game by Andre Owens (193-G-80, college: Houston), he ended the game with 1/4 in 2's and 1/4 in 3's and a total of 6 points and Lawrence Kinnard (202-F-86, college: UAB)'s 3/8 three pointers were gave the chance to the Russians by playing simple basketball to score nearly from all edges and their stats proved so, as Coach Yiannaras couldn't stop Nikita Balashov who was scoring with every single way. The very low performance by Trisokkas (1 point with 0/4 two pointers and 1/2 free throws), the low productivity by Maze (3/7 in 2's and 1/2 in 3's) let the Russians to develop this +31 points deficit since in the last 2 minutes the Russians succeed a 10-0 to give to the game a celebrating close.Top scorers:Keravnos: Lawrence Kinnard 11 and Julian Vaughn (205-C/F-88, college: Georgetown) 10Krasnye: Balashov 18, Thomas 16, Simmons 10 and Miles 10.

Michelin Etha Engomis - KRKA Novo Mesto 59-74KRKA Novo Mesto ended the last 16 hopes of Michelin Etha Engomi in the EuroChallenge as they kept their own very much alive with a 74-59 road win. KRKA was much stronger thant the visiting site who most probably will end up their European tour with a 0-6 record in the six games played in Europe this season. Edo Muric led the way with 19 points while Smiljan Pavic collected 16 and 10 rebounds in a contest that was as good as over by the end of the first quarter. Etha have struggled offensively all season and after they slipped into a 25-11 hole as early as the ninth minute of the contest, there never seemed like there would be a way back. It was a three-pointer from Pajic that gave KRKA that 14-point advantage, and it only continued to grow as the game went on. The lead reached 19 early in the third quarter when a three-pointer from Jakov Vladovic (187-PG-83) put the visitors up 53-34. Uros Lucic added 11 points for KRKA.Donte Poole (190-G-89, college: Murray St.) led Etha with 13 points while Dejan Cup (202-PF-83) had 12 and Taron Downey (186-G-82, college: Wake Forest) added 11.

Nancy Sluc - Pizza Express Apollon 87-69A total revenge for the French over the team of the newcomer Chris Chougaz took place in Nancy and in a packed stadium of 5.000 French fans crowding for their team.The hosts used a huge first-half performance to take complete control of the game and won it at a canter. Although Apollon scored the opening five points of the game, that would be their only lead of the contest, Nancy coming to life with an 11-2 run capped by Shawn King's dunk, the first of two in quick succession from the big center.That early deficit was a distant memory by the time they ended the first quarter up 25-15, and it only got worse for the visitors with back-to-back threes from Kenny Grant making it 34-15 two minutes into the second period.When Grant split a pair of free throws to end the first half, the lead was 50-27. Nancy could afford to ease off thereafter as Apollon made minor inroads to the lead, with an 8-0 spurt cutting it to 52-40 on Brandon Brown's free throws before threes from Bingo Merriex and Nicholas Pope carried Nancy clear once more.Grant led Nancy with 16 points while Merriex had 15, Marcellus Sommerville 12 and Souleymane Diabate 11.Gerald Robinson (202-PF-84, agency: Court Side, college: Tenn-Martin) had 18 points for Apollon with Brown collecting 17, Marvin Jefferson (206-C-86, college: Idaho) and Grigoris Pantouris (190-G/F-82) 10 each

American Cadarian Raines (206-F-90) put on an amazing game in the last round for Apollon and that's him to receive a Eurobasket.com Player of the Week award for round 7. The 26-year old forward had a double-double of 17 points and twelve rebounds, while his team edged out Apoel (#3, 4-3) 70-66. Apollon maintains the 5th position in Cypriot Division A. The season is still in it's early stage, so the team may have a chance to improve their current position in the standings. They lost 5 game... [read more]

American Cadarian Raines (206-F-90) put on an amazing game in the last round for Apollon and that's him to receive a Eurobasket.com Player of the Week award for round 7.The 26-year old forward had a double-double of 17 points and twelve rebounds, while his team edged out Apoel (#3, 4-3) 70-66. Apollon maintains the 5th position in Cypriot Division A. The season is still in it's early stage, so the team may have a chance to improve their current position in the standings. They lost 5 games and had just two victories. In the team's last game Raines had a remarkable 53.8% from 2-point range. He turned to be Apollon's top player in his first season with the team. Virginia Tech graduate has very impressive stats this year. Raines is in league's top in points (7th best: 14.4ppg) and averages solid 1.2bpg and 56.0% FGP.

The second most remarkable performance in last round's games was 26-year old Canadian Murphy Burnatowski (200-SF-90) of Apoel. Burnatowski impressed basketball fans with 26 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists. Bad luck as Apoel was edged by slightly lower-ranked Apollon (#5, 2-5) 70-66. Apoel managed to keep the same 3rd spot in the standings. His team's 4-3 record is not bad at all. Burnatowski is a newcomer at Apoel and it seems he did not have too much trouble to become one of team's leaders. He belongs to the best scorers in the league with 14.0ppg (#8). He also registered 5.9 boards per game.

The third best performed player last round was another Apollon's star - American Travis Franklin (200-F-88, agency: Interperformances). Franklin scored 22 points and grabbed five rebounds. He was another key player of Apollon, helping his team with a 70-66 win against slightly higher-ranked Apoel (#3, 4-3). Apollon can only dream about fighting for top spots in the league. They have rather bad season and 2-5 record places them close to the bottom of the standings. Too bad for Franklin he does not play for a better team. But maybe if he did, his season stats would not be that high. Franklin has individually a great season in Cyprus. After only 6 games, he made it on the list of the league's leaders in points with 19.3ppg (best scorer) and rebounds with 6.0rpg (9th best).

The Player of the week is chosen based on efficiency calculation, but also including game result, importance of the game, if played recorded double-double/triple-double, etc.The efficiency formula is a combination of various formulas used by different basketball organizations/leagues. We got involved many basketball scouts and journalists to assure it's accuracy.The formula: 1.5*PTS + 3* (REB+AST+ST+BL-TO) - 2*BSAG - 4*PF + 3*PFRV + 4* (2FGPM+3FGPM) + 1.5*FTM - 3* (2FGPA-2FGPM) - 3* (3FGPA-3FGPM) - (FTA-FTM)

During the 6th week Keravnos Strovolou (who's currently in the first position of the league after six games with a 5-1 record) dominated at all edges and got a small revenge from Paralimni is the team of Coach Papadopoulos was the one and only to force the Strovolos team (during the first round) to suffer their only (until now) defeat in the competition. The final score 43-75 says it all!! Coach Livadiotis troops remembered very well what has happened in their home court a month ago and w... [read more]

During the 6th week Keravnos Strovolou (who's currently in the first position of the league after six games with a 5-1 record) dominated at all edges and got a small revenge from Paralimni is the team of Coach Papadopoulos was the one and only to force the Strovolos team (during the first round) to suffer their only (until now) defeat in the competition.The final score 43-75 says it all!! Coach Livadiotis troops remembered very well what has happened in their home court a month ago and were very focused from the first to the last minute of the game leaving no space for a second surprise to E.N. Paralimni.Obviously there is a long distance between the two teams and this shown from the early stage of the game as the first period ended with 8-20 for the host team followed by a new triple score at the end of the first half with 8-24 with Keravnos leading the game already with 16-44 giving an early end to the game. Coach Livadiotis had the chance to use players that didn't have sufficient time in the previous games while he used many youngsters and rookies such as Panagiotis Markou (189-G-96) who played 24 minutes having 6 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 turnover in all around performance from the talent from Limassol, while minutes were received by the youngster Orestis Andreou (188-F/G-98) (in 5 minutes he scored 3 points, 2 steals, 1 assist and 1 turnover) and another 3:30 minutes by another talented youngster, Pavlos Stavrinidis (202-G-99) (3 points and 1 rebound)

The third period was a simple routine for the players of both the teams for different reasons, E.N. Paralimni tried to minimize the loss but it was obvious that the psychological factor was not with them, the 11-17 of the period is once more showing that they had scoring issues as only Jarvis Ray was scoring being also the top scorer but the only player on double digits (17 points, 6 rebound, 2 assists, 4 steals and 2 turnovers) and none of his team-mates scored more than 7 points (Kevin Thomas). On the other hand, Keravnos Strovolou who played this game without two of its starters (Stylianou and Abukar remain on bench) played control basketball with Terell Parks (204-C/F-91, college: W.Illinois) being the MVP of the game and the top scorer in his top performing game with Keravnos jersey, The American power forward ended the game with 24 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist, 1, steal, 1 block shot and 2 turnovers in a bit less than 25 minutes in action)

The fourth period where everything was ended E.N. Paralimni "beat" Keravnos youngsters with 16-14 and the final result became official. With another great organizational performance by Barker who ended the game with 12 assist (5 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 turnovers in 25:25 active minutes) and the "soldier" O' Brien who remain on court for 27:38 minutes recording another double-double figure with 11 points, 10 rebounds, followed by Ross who recorded 13 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals and 4 turnovers in nearly 34 minutes... E.N. Paralimni is recording now a 3-3 being in the 4th spot with a +2 from the last two teams on the board..

The other two games of the week were characterized by the "easy" victory of APOEL over the champion team of AEK Larnakas with 89-77. APOEL's MVP was Akeem Wright (200-F/G-84, college: Kansas St.) who ended the game with 21 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 5 turnovers, followed by the very good Murphy Burnatowski with 15 points and 3 rebounds, while on the other hand, AEK for another game without its basic center Primoz Brezec was an easy task for APOEL, Coach Gavriel saw only Torey Thomas (178-PG-85, college: Holy Cross) trying for the best and nobody else stood with gatts on the derby, Thomas ended the game 17 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, followed by Harris's 12 points and Trisokkas 11 and that was it... APOEL balanced it's record with AEK but bypassed the Larnaka team since the +12 deficit it's giving to APOEL at this stage the second spot. Both teams have a 4-2 record.

On the third and final game of the sixth week, the history recorded the easy win of ETHA Engomis over the weird team of Apollon Limassol with 86-61 (Maxie Esho's another great performance with 23 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 assists, followed by Walket's same performance with 22 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists) were the night's major factors, while from Apollon only Raines tried who ended with another double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds, followed by Jermaine Marshall who ended the game with 15 points, were not enough to help their team to succeed something better than another easy loss with 25 points deficit... ETHA is currently on the sixth position recording the same with APollon Limassol as both the teams have an 1-5 record.

JDA Dijon Bourgogne (ProA) is close to sign 31-year old Cypriot international power forward Anthony King (206-110kg-85, college: Miami, FL) who played last time at Gaziantep Basketbol in Turkey. He is a dual citizen owning also American passport. In 32 BSL games he recorded 6.8ppg and 4.4rpg last season. King also played 14 games in FIBA Europe Cup where he averaged 7.6ppg, 5.1rpg, 1.7apg and 1.1bpg. The previous (14-15) season he played at Artland Dragons in German BBL. In 26 games he ha... [read more]

JDA Dijon Bourgogne (ProA) is close to sign 31-year old Cypriot international power forward Anthony King (206-110kg-85, college: Miami, FL) who played last time at Gaziantep Basketbol in Turkey. He is a dual citizen owning also American passport. In 32 BSL games he recorded 6.8ppg and 4.4rpg last season. King also played 14 games in FIBA Europe Cup where he averaged 7.6ppg, 5.1rpg, 1.7apg and 1.1bpg. The previous (14-15) season he played at Artland Dragons in German BBL. In 26 games he had 9.3ppg, 5.2rpg, 1.3apg and 1.0bpg. King also played 10 games in Eurocup where he got 12.8ppg, 5.6rpg and 2.2apg.The list of the past achievements is quite long as among others his team made it to the Bundesliga Semifinals in 2012 and 2014. King was also voted Eurobasket.com All-German Bundesliga 3rd Team in 2014.He represented Cyprus at the Qualifications to European Championships 2017 this year. His stats at that event were 6 games: 9.7ppg, 7.0rpg, 2.5apg, 1.0bpg, FGP: 42.9%, FT: 69.6%.King has played also professionally in Greece (Aris), Cyprus (Etha) and Germany (Deutsche Bank Skyliners).He attended University of Miami, Florida until 2008 and it will be his ninth season as a professional player.The scouts decsribe him following way:
Gives the team an additional scoring threat in the post as well as rebounding... physical performer who doesn't mind mixing it up down low... gives the team added toughness in the paint.
Received Cypriot passport in June 2012.

WARNING:
Do not copy, redistribute, publish or otherwise exploit information that you download from the site !
Do not encumber, license, modify, publish, sell, transfer or transmit, or in any way exploit, any of the
content of the site, nor will you attempt to do so.